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Why did you decide to take on the herculean task of overseeing the Depot project for Telluride Science?
I decided to volunteer to manage the Depot project after meeting Sally Puff Courtney and Mark Kozak. The history of the building and it serving as a hub for exporting gold and silver is in alignment with what Telluride Science is doing today as we export the best new scientific ideas. This struck a chord and resonated with me. Professionally, I have had three loves in my life—engineering, construction, and history. This project lets me combine all three of my passions; being a part of renovating a National Historic Landmark building is such an honor.
In your opinion, what is so special and unique about the Depot?
Beyond being a National Historic Landmark and a truly iconic building, the Depot was so key to Telluride as it changed the face of mining and the town with the railroad coming through in 1893. Telluride Science is the ideal steward of the building and is refurbishing it with great care. It is wonderful that Telluride Science has put down roots in an historic building which strongly impacted the mining era with its exports and will now export scientific ideas to the rest of the world.
What has been the most challenging aspect of the Depot?
Well, as most people can guess, it's the 1893 secrets behind the walls and under the floors. Normally, each building has a set of as-built drawings which show the utility locations, structure beams, and walls. But in this case, we couldn’t find a set of as-built drawings and had nothing to go off other than talking to some people around town, including the contractor in 1992 that renovated the Depot for Harmon's. Because the building is 130 years old, we expected to have surprises some of which made us deviate from our original plan. We had to change some steel and come up with a workaround plan, but that's to be expected. We were lucky that structurally the building, except for the south side, was in reasonably good shape.
Was it challenging to keep costs down in renovating a historic building?
We tried to value engineer as much as possible. For example we saved at least $400,000 by choosing not to put a whole new mezzanine floor upstairs on the east end of the building. Instead, we utilized the existing space upstairs which was a bit funky but were able to utilize the space for some additional offices accessed by a functional and aesthetically pleasing spiral stair case.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of working on this project?
In any construction project and especially this one, there's such a tangible outcome to your efforts. You can see it, feel it, touch it. Seeing the progress now that we are nearly halfway done with approximately 70 percent of the hard part behind us, gives me an intrinsically good feeling.
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